1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an inspection method and an inspection apparatus for a temporarily bundled circuit of a wire harness to be used in a motor-car, OA equipment, or the like.
2. Statement of the Prior Art
Upon producing a wire harness in which a plurality of wires with terminals at the ends thereof are laid and assembled, the wires are divided into a plurality of groups and each group is piled. The divided groups of wires are temporarily bundled. There are various manners of temporary bundling, such as inserting the opposite ends of each wire into a connector, or inserting one end of each wire into a connector and rendering the other end free. The temporarily bundled circuits are piled and assembled by winding a tape around the piled circuits to form a permanent bundling.
If an inspection finds a fault such as misplacement or breakage of a wire in a circuit subject to a regular bundling process, it is necessary to unwind the tape and return the regularly bundled circuit to the temporarily bundled circuit. This process requires considerable labor and lowers production efficiency.
Accordingly, it is a general method to inspect a circuit subject to temporary bundling. In a temporarily bundled circuit in which each of the wires is inserted into and coupled to a connector at the opposite ends thereof, an electrical device such as a checker or the like inspects misplacement, breakage of the wires, or the like in the connector.
For convenience of explanation, an example of conventional temporary bundling will be explained below by referring to FIG. 6. FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a temporarily bundled circuit of wires. As shown in FIG. 6, a temporarily bundled circuit 100 has wires 101 with one end free and the other end coupled to a connector. Each wire may be different in length. Accordingly, it is necessary to manually inspect a circuit by contacting a terminal 102 of each wire 101 with an electrode of an inspection device or to visually inspect every wire in the circuit by referring to a sample or a layout table.
In a temporarily bundled circuit in which both ends of each wire are inserted into and coupled to a connector, an electrical device such as a checker or the like can easily and reliably effect the inspection. However, as shown in FIG. 6, in a temporarily bundled circuit 100 in which one end of each wire 101 is free, the inspection method in which the terminals 102 of the wires 101 are manually contacted with the electrode of the inspection device requires much labor and reduces efficiency of production. The visual inspection method of using the sample and an arrangement table cannot detect breakage of the wires and renders products unreliable.